U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Miami International Airport seized 720 pieces of counterfeit jewelry with a suggested retail price of more than $6 million on June 16, the agency said Thursday.
The jewelry arrived in a shipment from Hong Kong and bore a nongenuine Van Cleef & Arpels copyrighted design. CBP officers selected the shipment for inspection and immediately noticed that the merchandise was not authentic, and CBP import specialists recommended seizing the merchandise.
“The result of this seizure is another perfect example of the exceptionally skillful CBP officers and CBP import specialists at our ports of entry,” said Miami International Airport port director Christopher Maston. “When property rights are violated, American jobs are lost, business profits are stolen and consumers are put at risk from poor quality or unsafe products.”
In the fiscal year 2014, CBP made more than 23,000 seizures of counterfeit goods worth an estimated $1.2 billion.